This invention relates to liquid dispensers. More particularly, it relates to a liquid dispenser having a tapping stem for communicating with the interior of a disposable liquid container, such as a wax paper carton of the type conventionally used for packaging dairy products, and utilizing the container as the only reservoir for storing the liquid to be dispensed.
Liquid dispensers are well-known in food service applications. One example of such a liquid dispenser is a cream dispenser. Typically, cream dispensers include a housing, which supports a removable reservoir for holding the cream to be dispensed, and a valve assembly for dispensing the cream. Generally, the housing and reservoir are made of stainless steel or other durable material, and the housing is usually provided with suitable thermal insulation. The cream stored in the reservoir is cooled in the dispenser either by a mechanical refrigeration system or by a eutectic refreezable device.
These existing cream dispensers have a number of disadvantages. The stainless steel components of such cream dispensers are relatively expensive to manufacture. To use such cream dispensers, one must fill the reservoir from the carton or other container in which the cream is packaged. Cleaning of the dispenser, which must be performed on a regular schedule, requires removal and cleaning of the reservoir and the valve assembly. Moreover, a food service establishment desiring to serve cream from multiple reservoirs (for example, where the establishment desires to provide several different flavors of cream at one time) must use multiple of these dispensers. This requires significant counter space for the dispensers and correspondingly places increased cleaning demands on the establishment.
There is a need, therefore for a cream dispenser that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, that is convenient to use and easier to clean than present dispensers having storage reservoirs which require cleaning and that is relatively compact in size and can dispense cream from multiple storage containers at one time.